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Renowned novelist and poet Thomas Hardy is best known for his fatalistic, often tragic novels set in the 'realistic dream-country' of Wessex, in south and south-west England. Drawing on his own life, he created some of the most memorable characters and stories in Victorian literature—many of which are included here. In five dramas taken from Radio 4's 'Hardy's Women' season, we meet a few of Thomas Hardy's most compelling female protagonists.

Milton Jones, Milton Jones - so good, they named him. The most popular living comedian on Radio 4 and officially Britain's funniest Milton is here with the complete three series of his award-wining show that leapt from late night to prime time - a show which costars regular guests Alexander Armstrong ( Pointless, Armstrong & Miller), Dave Lamb (the voice of Come Dine with Me) and Joanna Scanlan ( The Thick of It, Getting On).

A trusted colleague and friend. A mother. A wife. Neve Connolly is all these things. She has also made mistakes: some small, some unconsciously done, some large, some deliberate. She is only human, after all. But now one mistake is spiralling out of control, and Neve is bringing those around her into immense danger. She can’t tell the truth. So how far is she prepared to go to protect those she loves? And who does she really know? And who can she trust? A liar. A cheat. A threat. Neve Connolly is all these things. Could she be a murderer?

When Rosanne and her husband left city life for the Cornwall idyll they knew little of farming, the seasons and milking, but over time they found their way, rising to each new challenge and embracing all that the land gave them. Growing Goats and Girls lovingly and invitingly charts the rural, hardworking and joyfully haphazard lives of Rosanne and her husband as they escape London to live off the land.

He's a detective hunting cold-blooded killers, but does he know more than he admits? She's a lawyer who must defend a murderer - but how far will she go to protect her only child? They have a plan - but can they trust each other with their lives?

Leah and her three best friends get changed into their pyjamas, eat pizza, and argue about what film to watch. They laugh together, until the early hours. But the next morning, Leah blinks open her eyes and sees three empty sleeping bags. The other girls are gone. Twenty years later. In her small hometown, still-haunted Leah has never been able to shake off the rumours and whispers. How could she have slept through it all? She must know what happened.

TWICE UPON A TIME, A PRINCESS FELL IN LOVE WITH A BEAST.I was reborn with no memory of my previous life and no powers, save for transforming into an aberration most wish eliminated. Among the few who don't wish me dead are the Shabbin Queen, the rulers of Luce, and Cathal Báeinach—Fallon’s father and my self-appointed sentry. Despite my best efforts, I cannot understand why the Crow King’s boorish general has decided to guard me, a woman he can barely stand to look at. I may lack education and be physically unpleasing, but do I deserve such scorn?

It's 1852 and Margaret Lennox, a young widow, is offered a position as governess at Hartwood Hall. She quickly accepts, hoping this isolated country house will allow her to leave her past behind. Cut off from the village, Margaret soon starts to feel there's something odd about her new home, despite her growing fondness for her bright, affectionate pupil, Louis. There are strange figures in the dark, tensions between servants and an abandoned east wing. Even stranger is the local gossip surrounding Mrs Eversham, Louis's widowed mother, who is deeply distrusted in the village.

Olivia Colman reads E. Nesbit's classic novel. 'The Railway Children' is a masterpiece of children's fiction. It wonderfully evokes a bygone age and is packed with fun, excitement and adventure. When their father goes away unexpectedly, Roberta (Bobbie), Peter and Phyllis have to move from London to a cottage in the countryside. At the local station they make friends with the porter, Perks, and spend their time waving to the passengers on the trains.

In this series, Adam’s church gets a makeover, complete with plasma screens and a smoothie bar, Adam researches some poledancers and then succumbs to envy when he hears an old rival on ‘Thought for the Day’. Adam’s new ‘bromance’ with Leon comes to a crashing halt at an embarrassing vicarage dinner party. Adam also has a crisis of faith and then gets drunk at a Vicars and Tarts party.

1431 is a dangerous time for a woman to be defiant. England has been fighting France for 100 years. At home, power-hungry men within a corrupt government manipulate a weak king - and name Cecily's husband, York's loyal duke, an enemy. As the king's grasp on sanity weakens, plots to destroy York take root. It will take all of Cecily's courage and cunning to save her family. But when the will to survive becomes ambition for a crown, will she risk treason to secure it?

Earworms mbt© is a revolutionary accelerated learning technique that takes the hard work out of learning. By listening to these specially composed melodies with their rhythmic repetitions of French and Polish a few times, you pick up over 200 essential words and phrases that will not just be on the tip of your tongue, but will be burned deeply into your long-term memory in next to no time.

You are born to a king, but marry a tyrant. You stand helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore and comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. You play the part, fooling enemies who deny you justice. Slowly, you plot.

When a body is pulled out of an office fire, three women are first in line for questioning. All of them have reasons for wanting revenge against the company’s CEO.It could be Laura, who has returned to work to find that her maternity cover isn’t leaving. The CEO insists he’s doing what’s best for the company. Laura isn’t convinced he’s telling the truth. Or there’s Mia. Brought in as temporary cover for Laura, she has quickly made herself indispensable - and popular with her colleagues.

When Alice and Leo move into a newly renovated house in The Circle, a gated community of exclusive houses, it is everything they’ve dreamed of. But appearances can be deceptive. As Alice is getting to know her neighbours, she discovers a devastating, grisly secret about her new home—and begins to feel a strong connection with Nina, the therapist who lived there before. Alice becomes obsessed with trying to piece together what happened two years before. But no one wants to talk about it. Her neighbours are keeping secrets, and things are not as perfect as they seem.

Princess Rowan thought she knew her place in the world. She never expected to feel like an outsider. She certainly never imagined she would fall in love, least of all with a man from a barbarian kingdom half a world away. But when series of missteps lands her in the hands of the people she was brought up to hate, she is forced to reconsider everything she thought she knew about both lands. And about herself. After a lifetime of animosity between the kingdoms, will the Socairans ever accept her as one of their own? Or will her mistakes push her people into yet another war?

When Sarah's husband, Will, is unexpectedly fired, her first reaction is shock. Then she gets a call offering her his old job. On principal, she should turn it down. But their young family needs the money and Sarah can't help feeling like her career has taken a backseat all these years. Now it is her turn to shine. Overnight, Sarah and Will trade places. She's now the departmental director commuting into the city five days a week and answering client calls on the weekend.

Anna is used to hunger and hardship. Ever since she was seventeen, when the pale shadows of her vitiligo were spotted, she has spent more than a decade struggling to survive alone and in exile. Then a single act of kindness towards a beautiful stranger and the taste of a divine peach changes Anna’s life forever.

Illumen Hall is an elite boarding school. Tragedy strikes when the body of a student is discovered at their exclusive summer party - on her back is an elaborate tattoo of a magpie. When new girl Audrey arrives the following term, running from her own secrets back home in America, she is thrown into solving the case. Despite her best efforts to avoid any drama, her new roommate Ivy was close to the murdered girl, and the two of them can't help but get pulled in.

When the cryptic Parallax puzzle appears online, it quickly becomes the world's most talked-about conundrum. A complex, multi-level cipher, it has the brightest minds on the planet baffled: but who created it, and why Sixteen-year-old Sabrina is obsessed with cracking it - but when she does, she discovers it isn't a game. Caught up in a sinister global conspiracy, she becomes involved with a mysterious international task force, and is recruited to hunt down a serial killer who may not be from this world.